Mountain Musings

More Birdhouses by the Woodworker!

Tom had such a good time making birdhouses with the Georgia grandchildren earlier this month, that he decided to make a couple more...for our grandsons in Maryland!

So...he whipped them together in time for our trip this past weekend to visit them and to help celebrate little J's 4th birthday.

After finding out the boys' favorite colors from their dad, he started painting the roofs:

Everything's looking good, and we hope the boys will enjoy watching birdies make nests in their own special birdhouse, complete with their initial:

Presenting the birdhouse:

And here's the other grandson's birdhouse, all installed side-by-side on a tree close by a viewing window for the boys to watch the comings and goings.

It turned out to be a wonderful 4th birthday party with turtles and snakes and all sorts of interesting creatures for all the kids to touch and handle. This Granny stayed far away!

That was our Saturday! We don't get to see these boys often, so it was a treat to visit even for a few hours!

~ Deb

Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 2

Part 2 ~ Grandchildren, Birthdays, and Birdhouses

Can you think of a better birthday gift than having this crew show up on my doorstep? The holiday/birthday weekend was wonderful! Aren't they growing up?!

Sarah, Eric, and the five children drove in from Georgia; and Hannah and Christopher drove in from Michigan! Fun times!

When I was growing up, my parents worked at a company that gave their employees the week of July 4th off every year, so we celebrated my birthday all vacation week in the Smoky Mountains and Gatlingburg, TN...every year!

Little did Tom know when we got married that I was accustomed to celebrating my birthday for a whole week! LOL! He does a great job of stretching out all the fun....

 

Sarah was in the kitchen making a mini 6-inch birthday cake...aaah so special to have her in the kitchen again!

Just perfect having both girls working together. I miss scenes like this!

 Here's the cake all finished and decorated and ready for me to blow out the candles!

While everyone was here visiting, Jonathan wanted to have us all over to his house for a meal. So we all loaded up and made the trek 25 minutes south of us. There's his house in the distance:

Here's Chef Jonathan performing his magic!

What he fixed for us:

Seated around his table for a nice meal!

The red/white/blue S'more trifle! Oh my goodness!

 

Christopher and Hannah relaxing after the wonderful meal. So good to see them together:

One of the special activities Tom/Grampa planned for the kids was building a birdhouse in Grampa's Workshop (lots of pre-visit prep!). All the kids were super excited!

Here's the master woodworker with the newest member of the family looking on:

Grampa had plenty of helpers directing the little ones...much needed! It was a hubbub of activity!

Hannah watched little Miss L play with her birdhouse pieces:

The kids loved using the drill:

Almost done! Her dad helping her drill:

Everyone lined up with their finished birdhouse projects, complete with their favorite color and their initial. Even the littlest munchkin got his own birdhouse! 

Thank you, Grampa, for an exciting productive activity...now Daddy will have to find spots in their yard for 5 birdhouses!!! LOL!

 
What July 4th visit would be complete without some slip and slide water fun:

Or a trip to the ice cream shop for some birthday ice cream:

Or some fireworks:

And sparklers:

The weekend came to an end sooo quickly!  We loved it all! Here we are saying goodbye to Sarah...until next time!

~ Deb

Next up: Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 3

Summer Visit from my Sister

Empty Nester's DayBook

Well, several blog readers have contacted me--February, March, and April--wondering if we're okay, since the last time I posted was in January!

Yes, we are still kicking and doing as well as two old empty nesters can do! Not a lot of exciting activity around here to post about, to be honest. Things change and activities quiet down once the kids are gone.

So I thought I would start with current events and work my way back to get you up to date.

I've been slowly heading out to the garden since it won't be long before our last frost date of May 15th is here, and it's up to me to plant our garden this year.

Most of the garden veggies, in years past, Hannah and I either ate fresh, or she froze and canned. I will plant less variety and much less quantity, mostly for immediate consumption. The guys around here aren't big veggie eaters to help use it up.

Here's the picket fence garden in early spring....with cardboard covering the beds to prevent weeds. It's overwhelming all the cleanup that needs doing just to get going. But whenever Hannah comes to visit, I want it to look as good as when she was here taking care of it! Big task!

Also this month Jonathan recently hosted his first guests, other than immediate family, in his new home.

He is enjoying his home tremendously and hopes to have more guests come to visit in the coming weeks:

Tom is continuing to help furnish Jonathan's home by building a laundry room cabinet. It's now almost ready for staining and then installing. Then next on the list....a queen-sized bed:

I brought these award-winning cream cheese cupcakes to church last week. It's an old time recipe that my Aunt Bunny used to make and bring for Christmas every year. Let me know if you'd like the recipe:

 

 

Moving backward to the month of March...it was an exciting month!!  Our 8th grandchild (and 7th grandson!) was born. We haven't seen him in person yet but hope to in May! Congratulations to Sarah, Eric, and the excited brothers and sister!

Here they are, eagerly awaiting their new baby brother's appearance!

I stayed busy making a green quilt to send to Sarah as a special gift for her before she had the baby. Her favorite color is green, and she loves to decorate for all seasons. I focused on green clovers for this quilt.

Snowbird Quilts over in West Virginia quilted this for me...you can see more up-close photos of the process on her instagram here. Here it is shown thrown over my bed before mailing:

Being spring....as in past years...the Spring 100 Walking Challenge began for our family on the first day of spring. However, the main organizer of the annual online event is taking a year off for 2023 as it was becoming quite the task with organization and expense with over 3,000 walkers across the country and world participating.

So our daughter Sarah's mother-in-law organized a Spring 100 just for their family, our family, and the extended married in-laws. 

I hope others across the country will take it upon themselves to challenge their families and friends for their own Spring 100.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's Tom participating on the treadmill while he has his morning quiet time:

And below is Hannah, in faraway cold Michigan, walking around her property there:

National Quilting Day also took place in March, so I celebrated by making a small wall hanging for my friend, Chris. 

She had commissioned Tom to make her a small quilt hanger, so I thought she needed a small surprise quilt to go on it when we gave it to her.

 

 

Here's the wall hanging that I made ..a new pattern called Flower Shoppe by Sherri McConnell. Tom has it attached inside the just finished quilt hanger he made.

Snowbird Quilts did a fabulous Rush Job of quilting it so I could get it to Chris when we met up in Richmond as she was passing through on a trip. Scroll through all Snowbird's photos on Instagram of this quilt, and you can see the quilting pattern Nectar up close.

We were so excited about the chance to meet up unexpectedly that we totally forgot to get a picture of her opening the quilt!  But here's a photo she sent me after she returned home and the perfect spot on her sun room wall she had picked out for it. Nice!

And here I am in my sewing room resting from my sewing labors:

  So we've made our way back to February....I worked on a couple of quilting projects this month but I can't post until they're gifted.

Newlyweds Hannah and Christopher are well...a lot of you have asked me how they are doing. I think married life suits them both! Just a quick picture of them celebrating six months of marriage in February. We are looking forward to seeing them in person again:

The last subject on this very long post is to document a visit from our long-time friends from Massachusetts who stopped by on their way to Florida in February.

We took them to Lexington and toured Washington & Lee University and also VMI Museum. The grounds were beautifully landscaped and it was a perfectly beautiful warm day for our excursion:

The campus:

Leaving Virginia and on their way to Florida:

I think that should catch you up on all the happenings, or lack thereof, around Mountain Musings since January. Let us know if you're still out there, faithful ones!

We wanted to wish you all a very Happy Resurrection weekend! He Arose!

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  ~ John 11:25-26

 

~Deb

 

Work in Progress ~ Finally Completed!

The month of January so far has not turned out to be a very productive month.

Unfortunately, the plans for organizing my sewing room and getting a zillion things in order all over the house.....has been postponed a bit.

I am finally coming out of a long 3-week cold virus that had both me and Tom down for the count!

Today I actually felt like sitting at the sewing machine, and it felt good!

I leisurely started sewing binding on a quilt, clipped it in place, and started the satisfying work of hand-stitching around the quilt.

It's quite embarrassing how long this quilt has been in limbo. My quilting buddy, Chris, and I each started sewing this row by row quilt together in 2015...8 years y'all!

Here's evidence from the label I sewed on the back and stitched when I finished the top. I called it "Sewing in Snow" because we sewed in the snowy winter when there was no gardening to do...she in her cozy home and I in mine...comparing notes as we sewed each row.

And here's the whole label below, which I sent to the long arm quilter to quilt onto the back of the quilt. I normally add just a small label with my name and date once the quilt is returned to me. This label was a big honker!

I think the reason the completion has been so long in coming was once we completed our quilts in 2015, my top sat folded on my shelf for years waiting until I could find a long arm quilter to quilt it.

Once I did find someone, the quilting was completed, and it was ready for me to pick up. Then the quilt sat yet again for a couple of years waiting for me to do just what I did today...bind it!

Here's the quilt laid out on our queen bed for display...it's really for a twin or double bed size:

And kudos to my friend, Chris, who, to her credit, had her quilt finished and on her guest room bed when I visited her several years ago. You can see why this is embarrassing on my end!

But...as of today 2023 my Work in Progress from 2015 is now complete. Quilt's in the washer and now dried, fluffed, and ready for use!

Today's binding and seeing the quilt finished definitely brought back some good memories!

Looking to start a new project next week!

~Deb

Christmas Memories Part 4 ~ The Quilts!

Is this not the sweetest picture??  This is the puppy quilt I made for my grandson for Christmas.We were not with them at Christmas this year, so I especially loved seeing this photo!

He's pointing to the one puppy who has blue glasses just like he wears! Sarah told me that the kids were pretending that the puppies had stolen Andrew's glasses! So creative! I think he likes it!

Pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman and called The Puppies. Quilting is by Snowbird Quilts. Quilting pattern is called Puppy Love with hearts and paw prints. So adorable!

If you scroll Snowbird Quilts Instagram link, you can find photos of various stages of the puppy long-arm quilting on her site (scroll through), and you can better see the Puppy Love pattern.

Special thanks also to my friend Cindy who appliqued the blue glasses on the puppy for me...her skills are far better than mine when it comes to applique!

The backing is flannel from JoAnn Fabrics, and this is the personalized label I sewed on:

And this is how I packaged the quilt in the box before wrapping it up. Here's looking at you, Andrew!

This is the flower quilt I made for Hannah for her new home in Michigan. Maybe all the spring flowers will help her forget about all the snow she'll be seeing this winter!

I think this is the first quilt I've made with a colored background, and this charcoal fabric really does make the flowers pop!

I think she was surprised when she opened this quilt because I amazingly kept it a secret that I was working on it. Plus she knew I was busy making the puppy quilt. Great surprise!

This pattern is called Walk in the Park by V and Company:

The fabric is Ombre, also by V and Company. The quilting pattern is called Bloom and Plume. It was quilted by Snowbird Quilts.

If you go to her Instagram link, you can scroll through and see the quilt in various stages of long-arm quilting and also pictured on a queen bed. Quality quilting!

 

Well, I think my sewing room needs some January clean slate cleaning before I decide what my next project might be. But I'm looking forward to starting something new and fresh later this month.

~Deb

AND LIFE GOES ON....CATCHING UP

Where did September, October, and November go?  I'm really wondering! And what has been happening since the busy summer of wedding planning and Hannah and Christopher's wedding?

Well, it almost doesn't seem possible that Hannah has been married for almost three months! Yes, we do miss her a lot but bottom line...she is totally loving married life, setting up her home, preparing meals for her husband, harvesting vegetables, hosting gatherings at their home, making new friends, and becoming adjusted to life in Michigan!

And, yes, our garden girl found a garden away from home, ready and ripe for the harvesting. Here are Hannah and Christopher spending a Saturday gathering potatoes:

And harvesting butternut squash with Christopher's brothers:

Every time I get a photo from her, she is smiling (a lot!) and says she is enjoying it all!

In the meantime, Tom and I were left with a garden that needed harvesting with the last of the veggies and cleaning up before the winter hits. We've been doing it bit by bit, as old folks have to pace themselves! This is no joke!

 

And we did get out and about this fall to enjoy the Skyline Drive and have a picnic. The leaves this year were not very vibrant, but the day was beautiful:

Picnicking on the Skyline Drive with friends:

Other things Tom has been up to include building a brand new lectern for our church. It is definitely an heirloom...a beautiful piece of furniture! Here he is installing it so it would be ready and in place for Sunday's services:

Tom has also become a guitar teacher for our grandson who wanted to learn guitar. They enjoy a long-distance zoom guitar lesson together every Monday afternoon:

Speaking of grandkids...I can't leave the others out! Here's a picture of four cuties ready for church on a Sunday morning:

And these two sweetie grandsons live faraway too! I love getting their pictures on text!

Time to Travel.........

In October Tom and I were able to travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary from back in August...and scenes like this one below were common sights.

   photo credit: The Traveler World Guide.com

Our destination was the Sight and Sound Theater to see a presentation of "David."  Excellent production!

Lancaster is well known for Amish wood-working and quilt shops--perfect for both of us! I visited several of the shops and enjoyed looking around at the quality furniture, fabric, crafts, and quilts:

While we were that far up north, we continued on to Connecticut to visit Tom's siblings. It had been many years since we were up that direction. Here are all four siblings together in sister Ellen's backyard:

We also had a photo session one day with Tom's two sisters who were recipients of a quilt I made each of them:

Here are Ellen and her husband Ed holding the Scrappy Sunflowers quilt I made her for a retirement gift:

And here are Tom and sister Sue holding the Wonky Stars Scrappy quilt I made for her birthday:

One of our activities while there was walking Long Island Sound...a beautiful area and beautiful afternoon:

Our New England visit soon came to a close, and we made it home in time to celebrate Jonathan's birthday with his annual Turtle Cake!

His birthday also consisted of a trip to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. which he absolutely loved since his passion is planes! 

I told him I could understand how he would love all the planes in the museum....if that yellow plane in the picture below happened to be a yellow quilt on display, I'd love it, too!

And last but not least....Mail Call!!  Look what I received as a late birthday gift...I'll take a late birthday gift like this any day--a beautiful sunflower table runner from my quilty friend, Chris!  Thank you, sweet friend!

Just two old people wandering the streets of Staunton:

Hope you've enjoyed this catch-up post. Everyone have a very blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

~Deb

Songbook Hymn Quilt ~ Firm Foundation ~ Gifted!

It's time to get back to posting about life in the sewing room! I wanted to show you the quilt I sewed this spring/early summer. I couldn't post pictures until this birthday gift was given away to the intended recipient.

The hymn panels were so fun to sew and color-coordinate with the chapel frames, doors, and steeples. Each hymn was one of my favorites as I worked on it.

The fabric is Songbook created by Stephanie over at Fancy That Design House, and the quilt pattern is called Firm Foundation, written by Anna at My Wandering Path.

 

Here's the quilt on our bed to display each of the chapels and hymn panels:

The back is flannel and was quilted (by Maureen at The Quiltery in Fairfield) with musical notes, which show up well against the solid backing. As you can see from the label, it's being gifted to my friend Kathy for her 60th birthday:

And here are my able-bodied quilt holders getting in on the action!  I have enough fabric and hymn panels to make another quilt, but I have more projects to complete before beginning the same exact quilt again:

So today I traveled to North Garden, Virginia, about an hour away, to rendezvous with my friend at Dr. Ho's Humble Pie...I'd never been there before...yay for new experiences!

It was a fun outing, even though neither one of us ordered their famous pizza pie!

Afterwards, I mentioned I had a birthday gift out in my vehicle for her. After she saw the big gift bag, I'm not sure I surprised her. After all...what could it be but a quilt!? :)

I think she liked it!  Mission accomplished!

Now I need to figure out my next project! Stay tuned for whenever it's gifted.

~Deb

Hannah's Bridal Shower

Looks like there's a party happening!

This past weekend was a very special occasion for Hannah! We traveled to Michigan for her bridal shower, so beautifully given by her fiance's mother and sisters.

The theme of "He has made everything beautiful in His time" was a special verse for each of them, acknowledging God's working in their lives to bring them to this point....in His timing. Thank you to Christopher's sister, Grace, for her artistic crafting of the verse!

As guests arrived, they were instructed...."this direction for the shower, please!"

All the decorations were lovely, especially on this corner cabinet, and the purple hydrangeas everywhere just added the perfect touch:

Here's a view of this side of the room as we began with a Welcome and Prayer.

And if you notice that computer set up in front of the corner hutch, that's Hannah's sister Sarah and little daughter attending the shower virtually all the way from Georgia!! Sooo thankful Sarah could join in!

And a view of the opposite side of the room as we all sang a hymn to begin. You can see Hannah, the guest of honor, on the left with all the generous gifts awaiting in front of her:

Here are two of Hannah's future sisters-in-law who helped put on the shower:

Hannah and I are chatting with Christopher's Grandma, who is a delightful lady!

Beautiful and delicious dessert table:

Drinks provided were Orange-Apple Lemonade and Raspberry-Peach Tea:

Lots of fun conversations and getting acquainted with the Michigan relatives!

So what's a bridal shower without a game or two. Here's Hannah and guests writing down answers to one of the games.

The corner hutch in the photo below belonged to my Aunt Bunny and was passed down to Hannah. It is filled with antique pieces, and Hannah will enjoy it here in her new home:All the guests enjoyed guessing various things about Hannah and Christopher's preferences and how they matched up...Mexican or Asian? Stay home or Go Out? Early Bird or Night Owl?

Also in this photo below, you can see Hannah has brought her quilt ladder (made by Dad) with her various quilts displayed. The mirror over the sofa was also a handmade wood piece by Dad to use in her new home.

Hannah is posing with another future sister-in-law who is married to Christopher's brother. They will live right down the road from each other after the wedding:

Time to open some gifts...and such nice gifts were given. Hannah was very appreciative of everyone's generosity:

These young girls brought her the gifts and helped her open:

At the close of the bridal shower, the groom-to-be made an appearance; and one of the shower gifts--a striking red clock--was installed immediately in just the perfect spot! Love it!

We're back home in Virginia this week with more wedding list to-dos to tackle and cross off the list. I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into our weekend. It was definitely an encouraging time. We're very thankful!

~Deb

 

(photo credit: bridal shower hostesses, thank you!)

Celebrating Aunt Bet's Birthday

From the previous post about my meet-up with a blogger friend, you know that I was in South Carolina last weekend. The occasion was my sister's birthday, and Hannah and I traveled down to help Aunt Bet celebrate! It had been well over two years since I'd been able to travel to visit her, so this was definitely a special trip!

One of the places she took us was to this little joint...nondescript on the outside for sure...but lots of buzz happening inside and definitely interesting!

Our mission was to purchase Morning Buns or A.M. buns, as the Bakeroom called them, for the next day's breakfast. We had never had this delicacy, but we found out that it was definitely worth the trip!

Located right next door to the Bakeroom was Methodical Coffee, but it was too close to lunch for Hannah to sample their famous brew, even though we had heard so much about this place.

Another place we've been to many times when we've visited is a little garden and antique shop located somewhat close by in Saluda, NC, The Gardener's Cottage:

For anyone who loves plants, there are so many things here for a gardener to delight in, as you can tell from this photo:

The owner had displayed several eye-catching arrangements by the door as you enter, and one of these little teacups came home with me:

And the building next door, The Brass Latch, is worth a browse also. Saluda is a unique little town, and I always enjoy driving through there:

I wanted to treat my sister to a special birthday meal while we were in town, so we decided on Lieu's Asian Bistro:

The food was delicious and plenteous enough that we each had lunch all set for the next day:

 

Hannah also wanted to treat Aunt Bet to a special meal...this time home-cooked. So she set to work in the kitchen and prepared a menu of Roasted Honey Garlic Butter Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, asparagus, salad, and Focaccia Bread:

Hannah enjoys cooking and thought it was extra fun to prepare Aunt Bet's birthday meal:

Landrum, SC, is another little town with various shops housed in vintage brick buildings. It was fun to visit an Amish furniture store, and we loved browsing several antique stores. This unique sign was in the furniture store...I loved it!

This antique wrought-iron piece caught my eye which could be used as garden decor with possibly a climbing clematis wrapping its tendrils around it..however, the price tag of $65 means it isn't down in my garden today:

Last, but not least, another adventure was a trek to Abbott's Frozen Custard in downtown Greer, SC:

Sisters enjoying custard:

Well, did we fill every minute we were there with something special, or what?!  Yes, I definitely like to do things on vacation...but sometimes even I need to rest. I brought some hand sewing with me to work on just in case we were home long enough..LOL!

I'll leave you with a final photo....taken in my sister's house of her beautiful calligraphy:

It was a very good trip, but I have been recuperating all this week! :)

~Deb

Sunflowers Growing on My Deck in March!

Yesterday (Saturday) our area of the Valley received 4 inches of that lovely white stuff! Noooo, please...but maybe this will be winter's final fling! 

The higher 65 degree temps this coming week will be a welcome change...so much so that I've already placed my annual mulch order in anticipation of sprucing up the yard. Sounds like work to me!

But even now....take a look...there are sunflowers growing on my deck in March!

 

I've finally gotten back into my sewing room this past week, and I'm loving creating again!! I made the Scrappy Sunflowers pattern by Lella Boutique...and my able helpers held it up for a photo.

So with the leftover yellows I decided to use them for a table runner. This one is small enough that I can quilt it myself, so I will do that and bind it this week, and it will be ready for gift giving.

 

Last month, the February Scrappy Hearts Sew-Along by Emily Dennis was what renewed my interest in sewing again. I loved making all the pink hearts during Valentine's month. This one is also ready for the quilter to work her magic with her long-arm machine.

And last but not least....I found a quilt top hiding away in my sewing room that I made in 2015! Whaaat?

The label was already made and dated. This is one I made virtually with my friend Chris 7 years ago!!! Hers was quilted and already in use on her guest room bed when I stayed overnight a few years ago.

Mine got lost in the shuffle! But, now that it's found, it's ready to go to the quilter this week, too.

This is called a Row by Row quilt...what's your favorite row?  My favorites are the tulips, apples, and mugs!

So those are my sewing room adventures for February / March. I have a long wish-list of quilts I need to make, and I'm deciding which to start on next.

~Deb